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Trash Metering and the Financial Strength of Cities |
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America's communities are discovering that waste reduction is not only a prudent environmental response, but also fiscally sound policy. Economists, experts, and local, state and national officials say WasteZero's waste reduction model can be invaluable to financially strapped municipalities.
During a daytime talk show, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave her advice to the American public on what the biggest thing they could do make the world a cleaner and healthier place. Hint: It involves not throwing things in the trash.
Appearing on The Doctor Oz Show, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was asked by the show's host, Mehmet Oz, what the biggest thing people could do to protect the environment and health. Her response:
"If we would insist on a recycling rate in our country at 80, 85, 90 percent, we would do a bunch of things. Certainly, we would have a cleaner environment. We would save a tremendous amount of water and energy. We would create millions of jobs because recycling, in and of itself, would become a supply chain in our country — a very domestic one. So, although it sounds simple — when you see those recycling bins, when people start to talk about recycling — think of it as a homegrown jobs program, an environmental program and an energy program and a water program all in one."
Resource Recycling
"The challenge for state governments is to uncover innovative ways to...provid[e] services and [obtain] the revenue to pay for those services in a radically changed environment, argues David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's in New York City. Wyss points to the example of Dartmouth, Mass., which created [with WasteZero] a program called Pay-As-You-Throw, in which residents pay $5 to $10 for a roll of garbage bags. Designed to curb rising municipal solid-waste costs, the program brought in more revenues through the fee and provided an incentive to recycle rather than throw things in the landfill. 'That's the kind of thing [municipalities] can do,' Wyss says."
Arizona Capitol Times (link)
"[Having implemented the WasteZero PAYT system], the results in Malden (MA) are staggering. Based on the five month trend, Malden residents anticipate cutting their waste disposal costs in half in 2009 with the new PAYT system. Malden residents not only learned to recycle but also learned to think twice about everything they throw away from old tennis shoes to packing peanuts. The political challenge of unit-based pricing may seem difficult on the surface but 50 percent diversion means 50 percent savings to the municipality. If a community pays 50 percent less for disposal, that's a result worth the effort."
US EPA (link)
In the first three months of Concord's pay-as-you-throw program, overall trash volume has dwindled, recycling rates have soared and the city has saved itself a significant chunk of change, according to figures released yesterday.
Concord (NH) Monitor (link)
"Gloucester's Pay-As-You-Throw trash system, purple "Barney bags" and all, seems to be achieving the desired results: People are throwing less, and paying less while recycling more. That is the case on both the individual and community level. Public Works Director Michael Hale reports that during the first two months of the new system, recycling collections increased 13 percent, while trash collection dropped 29 percent. That sounds like a win for local families, who pay for trash based on the number of purple bags they fill. It is also a win for the city, which pays a per-ton fee for trash hauled to the incinerator. And it is a win for the environment, since more trash is being recycled while less is being burned."
Editorial, Gloucester (MA) Daily Times (link)
"Maybe it's the wallet talking or maybe the switch raised everyone's awareness but the move by Marshfield to [WasteZero] Pay-As-You-Throw trash program has had a remarkable effect on the town's budget and the environment."
Debbie Sullivan, Recycling Coordinator, Marshfield, MA (link)
"Where the savings [from the WasteZero System] really show up is in manpower. We used to send three trucks three days a week, each with a driver and two pickers. We now send two trucks with one driver and one picker. The expenses also go down. We're running less equipment so our fuel costs go down and our maintenance costs go down."
David Hickox, Public Works Director, Dartmouth, MA (link)
"More than one year later, Malden officials report that the program has reduced waste and increased recycling beyond their expectations. Before PAYT, trash tonnage in Malden averaged 21,000 tons annually. Since the program started, the tonnage has been cut in half, to about 10,000 tons. The city is saving more than $800,000 annually in disposal fees to its waste-to-energy incinerator in Haverhill, which is run by Fairfield, N.J.-based Covanta Energy. Bag sales, meanwhile, generated $1.7 million for the city in the program's first year. The city also increased its recycling rate to 50 percent."
American City & County (link)
The town of Malden, Mass. is receiving an additional $2.5 million annually to spend on jobs, programs and services and is reducing municipal solid waste (MSW) by 50 percent, thanks to program known as pay-as-you-throw (PAYT).
Earth 911 (link)
[With WasteZero Trash Metering,] the town [of Shrewsbury, MA] reduced the amount of trash taken to the waste to energy facility by over 40 percent and realized a 34 percent (commodity only) recycling rate....The town avoided over $260,000 in disposal fees, equaling about $26 per household.
US EPA (link)
The state [of Massachusetts] is bracing for one of the worst budget seasons in recent history, and yet many communities continue to throw money away. Despite concerted efforts, few have made much progress in convincing residents to recycle more. The state Department of Environmental Protection says recycling rates in many local towns have been flat or have gotten worse.. Low recycling rates are particularly painful considering trash disposal costs.. PAYT is politically unpopular, but DEP numbers show it does the best job of encouraging recycling.
Editorial, Patriot Ledger, MA (link)
Two South Coast (MA) communities, Acushnet and Wareham, have begun talking about pay-as-you-throw. We encourage them not to view the program as a tax, since money saved can be used to prevent a tax increase or - theoretically, though not likely in this economic climate - refunded to the taxpayers. The environmental benefits of pay-as-you-throw should be considered as well as the effect on revenue.
Editorial, SouthCoast (MA) Today (link)
"You have to ask yourself, 'Is this [Trash Metering] the right thing to do?' And it is the right thing to do. In the long run, if we do nothing, it's going to cost more."
Louise Durfee, Town Councilor, Tiverton, MA (link)
"From my perspective, the implementation of a PAYT system is the best way to achieve the $1 million in revenue that we need to balance the budget. PAYT is also the only way that I know how to cut the cost of a major service and still have long-term positive benefits, such as reduced trash volumes and increased recycling..There are alternatives to PAYT, but nothing that I know of that more effectively or fairly reduces short- and long-term costs for the Town with less pain."
Mark Green, Town Manager, Sanford, ME (link)
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Trash Metering |
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| There are about 7,000 Pay-As-You-Throw (PAYT) programs operating in the U.S. and they come in all shapes and sizes, with many different ways to meter the waste, numerous methods of implementing the programs, and an array of options for pricing the programs and sharing the benefits within the community. |
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Environmental Impact |
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| In more than 300 communities nationwide, the WasteZero System has dramatically impacted residential waste diversion. A 2010 analysis of all WasteZero communities found that the WasteZero System decreased residential MSW by an average 43 percent in weight. A recent study by the US EPA of all Trash Metering municipalities shows that about one-third of diverted waste is diverted directly to recycling, about one-third is diverted to composting, and one-third is "source reduced" (buying in bulk, reduced packaging, etc.). |
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